This is exactly my feeling as well. I like the design of it, but it doesn’t feel like it’s own thing. It feels like alternative content from the people I already follow on Instagram. It’s like an echo chamber in an echo chamber.

I’ll be curious to see if they ever decide to open it up to non-Insta users. I turn to Microblogging like Mastodon/Twitter for a completely different social media experience, not a different side of the same coin.

The foundations of it are stronger than the original. There’s deeper characterization, more complex themes of family, interpersonal conflicts, infighting and the last hour is essentially a non-stop, stupendously choreographed action sequence. It sets up interesting dynamics for the sequels too.

As a technology buff I appreciated the framerate experiment. Films have always been shot at 24FPS typically, but the human eye sees at a much higher framerate than that. Avatar 2 experiments with increasing the framerate for realism. Action shots are mostly in 60FPS with dialogues and close ups in 24FPS. I think it did make the action sequences feel more lifelike, but the switching was a bit extreme IMO - it pretty regularly switches between 24FPS and 60FPS in action sequences which can be jarring. I personally would’ve preferred solid, on-stop chunks of 60FPS with chunks of 24FPS rather than on again/off again. That made it more distracting than a benefit, but I think the framerate experiment worked well overall. I’m hoping they stick with a single framerate per section in the sequels.

The real problem is the pacing. I thought Avatar 1 was a great scene setter for the universe of Pandora. Even if it’s broad strokes are very predictable, at least it’s enjoyable to see it play out. But the second time around, my god it takes FOREVER to get going. You know exactly how the conflict pieces slot into place for the climax and the dialogue is still just as clunky as the first film. Plus there’s some excessive “save the whales” scenes that IMO could’ve easily been cut as it repetitively bashes its obvious environmentalist message over your head again and again.

…But overall, it’s still a bit better than the first film. Just about. I’m really hoping the scripts for the next entries fix the dialogue and have more ambitious storytelling.

Exactly. I’ve been following Remedy since I was a teen and they’ve always made it crystal-clear Alan Wake 2 was the #1 priority in their hearts, but the realities of AW1 not selling particularly strong at first meant they didn’t have much leverage to make it as soon as they wanted to. They very transparently and regularly talked about Alan Wake 2.

I’m really excited to see how different this turns out from the original now they can apply the lessons they learned in Quantum Break and Control.

I think we should actively keep track of Reddit restoring user’s content without people’s permission. Screenshots, timestamps, everything. Monitor it all.

Maybe if Reddit go ahead with their API change whilst treating their users like such disposable crap, we could reach out to the EU to inform them of Reddit’s GDPR breaches. Maybe that’d lead to their new revenue from API charges disappearing into hefty EU fines.

Update: Maybe there’s going to be some loophole about actually having to use the data deletion request via Reddit’s UI for there to be an actually GDPR breach though thinking about it. Going to ask around some Law friends for advise

I’ve made a poll so we can decide. We could then add the most popular suggestion to the Codeberg repo. I’m personally leaning towards no self upvoting.

Update: Now we’ve had hella votes I’ve added a feature request to the repo.

Inevitable. He didn’t write a lot, but you know someone’s writing is special when most of their output is commonly talked about in all-time greatest American literature discussions. Rest in Power.

I guess this is the new Reddit! Time to kick our feet up.

I expected as much. 2 days is a pitiful protest length. I will not be using Reddit any longer whilst keeping an eye on updates from here and other news sites. I’m hoping this memo encourages all subreddits to protest idnefinitely until this assclown of a CEO is willing to negotiate lower API prices. And if he’s not, onto greener pastures. And watching /r/wallstreetbets figure out a way to destroy their IPO when it eventually launches.

I’m absolutely loving how thoroughly The Verge is covering this story. No other tech news site seems to be updating this situation so frequently and with such a supportive tone.